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ST. CLAIRSVILLE -- Belmont County is Winter Storm Ready as designated by the National Weather Service -- Pittsburgh.
Representatives of the organization congratulated the county emergency management agency on Wednesday and presented a notification placard. The Belmont County Board of Commissioners commended the EMA's efforts.
Jason Frazier, meteorologist, and Fred McMullen, warning coordination meteorologist, said Belmont County got its official designation earlier this year in recognition of extensive planning to meet a wide range of scenarios.
"For a community to be 'Storm Ready,' they need to have plans in place to be prepared for, respond to and navigate the impacts of hazardous weather," Frazier said.
He pointed out the EMA's emergency operation center, the 911 center and plans for hazardous weather situations. He said the agency's work to involve and inform the community was also taken into account.
The NWS representatives said another valuable resource is the county's CodeRED emergency notification system. Members of the public can sign up for notifications at belmontcounty911.com or text "Belmont" to 99411 to sign up.
Frazier and McMullen said only 42 of Ohio's 88 counties have been designated Storm Ready. Frazier said Belmont County's EMA maintains good communication with the NWS. He noted that Belmont County has been struck by a number of disasters in the past, including recently.
"Just this past year we had a tornado that was confirmed just north of the city," he said of St. Clairsville. "We've had previous floods in the county that have been very detrimental. Hazardous weather is always something that's going to be on our minds."
McMullen agreed.
"Belmont and Monroe lead the state of Ohio in (Federal Emergency Management Agency) declarations. You're a river county, and not only just the tornadoes, it's river issues," he said, pointing to concerns such as ice jams in creeks. "These conversations are happening days in advance to make sure citizens are ready to go."
EMA Director Dave Ivan said his agency has been working toward this designation for six years with help from the NWS. The county was designated as a Weather Ready Nation Ambassador in 2017 and work on the Storm Ready designation began in 2019.
Frazier said world events hampered the effort, citing the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The process of certifying them as Storm Ready was unfortunately delayed," he said.
Ivan said the county now has a series of about 10 weather monitoring stations at sites including Yorkville, Powhatan Point, Somerton, Barnesville, Flushing, Shadyside and Colerain that monitor conditions such as temperature, rain, lightning in the area and other factors.
"The problem is if we get a downpour ... we can look at the radar and say, 'It's raining pretty hard there,' but we don't know exactly how hard it is raining. So with these stations out around the county, we get a better idea, because we know if we get 2 inches of rain in less than an hour, we're going to have to start keeping an eye on these streams. In Belmont County it's not a question of 'if,' it's a question of 'when.'"
County Commissioner J.P. Dutton said the additional monitoring is valuable in Belmont County.
"We have a long history of flooding. Devastating flood situations. Timeliness is very important. Anything we can do that can speed up the information and ... get them a message to get away from dangerous situations."
Ivan said within the next month the monitoring information should be available online to the public through the EMA website at belmontcountyema.org.
"They'll get the conditions that are going on at that particular site," Ivan said.